New York Times// 9/4/11

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Arab Spring, Israeli Summer? Israelis have been out protesting all summer, and made their largest demonstration yet last night, mostly in Tel Aviv, but also in Jerusalem and Haifa.  According to this article, the protest revolved around the lack of affordable housing and a desire for tax reform.  Just the word 'Israel' can spark so many conflicts and means something different to so many people.  Despite having visited there, I never think of the Israelis being too discontented with their own government- it seems like they have enough on their plate with every country nearby hating them.  Still, this year seems to be the year to stand up to your government over in the Middle East, and I suppose not even the mostly-Westernized country of Israel is immune.

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Anders Lewendal is trying to build a house entirely out of American-made materials.  While Lewendal considers himself a conservative and just wants to encourage job growth, the home-to-be owner who hired him thinks buying American could put pressure on foreign companies to raise their workers' wages.  I wish that were true.  It seems like the more likely response would be to decrease wages even more to cut costs, making the foreign products even cheaper and therefore more desirable.  While I myself avoid buying sweatshop-made products as much as possible, I think it's ultimately going to take a political policy shift to truly pressure foreign competitors to pay their workers a fair wage.  Article here.